Grouse shooting

When I was twelve, I went hunting with my father and we shot a bird. He was laying there and something struck me. Why do we call this fun to kill this creature [who] was as happy as I was when I woke up this morning.
Marv Levy

If you don’t have time to read the information below but would like to bring an end to grouse shooting scroll down for action you can take, including two demonstrations on the 12th August.

It’s approaching that time again, the so called Glorious Twelfth (August 12th), the beginning of the Grouse shooting season. I have written about this atrocity of barbarism several times in this blog herehere and the latest here

From beasts we scorn as soulless, In forest, field and den, The cry goes up to witness The soullessness of men.
M. Frida Hartley

As I have said time and time again I cannot understand the mentality, the cold indifference to taking the life of another sentient creature by hunting or shooting, but to get pleasure from doing so is even more baffling.

Moreover few people who participate in blood sports ever question that there is anything wrong with killing animals for fun. In the video below the shooter shoots from the sky a beautiful bird in full fight, ending the life of this defenseless unsuspecting creature simply for pleasure. It turns my stomach, makes me sick inside as it does most people. That is why the majority of people in the UK and worldwide would rather see an end to such wanton killing as a result of so called sport.

Grouse Shooting is the sport of kings says the shooter in this video.

The sport of kings indeed, is this saying meant to elevate this cruelty? Hunting and shooting is more like the sport of psychopaths! It is sickening that anyone can glorify such a vile act of cruelty against other feeling thinking sentient beings. It shames us as a nation that we allow this barbarity to continue. To be fair there may be a few who simply fail to comprehend what they do and there are those who even give up blood sports however for the majority it is a much anticipated pass time undertaken with disregard to the suffering caused.

Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow-creatures is amusing in itself.
James Anthony Froude,

The reality of grouse shooting

While for many people grouse shooting is deemed undesirable because of the harm it does to other creatures – including Hen Harriers and Peregrines as is emphasis of the video below – it has be said that grouse shooting is inhumane simply because it kills 700,000 grouse each year. All animals to my mind are equal and for each individual animal his or her life is important. However if the concern over the killing of endangered species rather than the grouse itself brings about an end to grouse shooting all well and good. The important thing is that no animal is harmed or killed whether it is a grouse, a fox or a hen harrier.

A number of animals are killed deliberately because for one reason or another their existence interferes with the number of grouse available for shooters to use as living targets.

Published on Jul 7, 2017

“This film sets out the case for banning driven grouse shooting both on the grounds of its dependence on the illegal killing of birds of prey and for its wider impacts.”

So you see it is not only the unfortunate tiny grouse who are killed or harmed and left to die a slow painful death but other wild animals and even domestic animals become victims of this outdated cruelty of a bygone age.

Look carefully at the photo in the tweet below a vehicle filled with beautiful mountain hares murdered – yes I am going to say murdered what else is it – in order to protect grouse from hare-born disease. Basically killing one animal in order to have plenty of another animal to kill, simply for pleasure.

Concerning the UK and indeed world wide the licensing of guns to hunters and shooters puts a deadly weapon into the hands of people who have violent tendencies – there is surely no one who can argue that hunting and shooting is not an act of violence. It is bizarre when you think about it but most licenses are issued to people to kill animals, though some licenses of course are issued to people for sports such as clay pigeon shooting. Here in the UK 567,015 people have a shotgun license , any one of them can use their weapon to kill not only helpless animals but people also, as was the case of Derrick Bird in Cumbria who shot twelve people with the gun he used to kill rabbits. Make no mistake these are deadly weapons which maim and kill helpless animals with the potential of killing defenseless humans also. The less weapons in public hands the less the chances of people being killed.

The following article includes a short video of the cruel and untimely death of animals killed by a gamekeeper in one of the UK’s National Parks. These animals are deemed to interfere with the numbers of grouse available for the shooters to kill.

I found the images upsetting, sickening as I find it disturbing that anyone can wantonly shoot helpless animals who have as much right to their lives as the person who shoots them, as do the grouse and every other being that lives.

Vast areas of our countryside are managed in this way to prepare for the massacre of these tiny helpless birds for no other reason than some disturbed sense of pleasure and enjoyment.

Why should a large percentage of our countryside be used and it’s inhabitants abused simply to satisfy the bloodlust of a very small group of over privileged people to kill helpless wild animals simply for enjoyment for four months of each year. Shooters are wealthy, some extraordinarily so as are the people who profit from organised shoots. A few years ago now while in a pub in the Yorkshire Dales my husband and I got into conversation with a former sheep farmer who was now retired. He told us that he had sold his land for the purpose of shooting as he was approached to do so and made an offer he could not refuse. A considerable amount I assume paid simply to have access to the land for four months of the year just to kill helpless birds, shoot them from the sky after driving them into the line of fire by terrifying them by a method referred to as grouse beating – hunting for grouse by trying to drive them towards the shooter by using flags, sticks, and other devices.

As long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other.
Pythagoras

While shooting and hunting are categorized differently they amount to the same thing and that is wanton violence and the massacre of defenseless sentient creatures for fun.

The article below from PETA focuses on reasons why hunting is cruel and nowadays unnecessary. The same is the case for grouse shooting

“Hunting accidents destroy property and injure or kill horses, cows, dogs, cats, hikers, and other hunters. In 2006, then–Vice President Dick Cheney famously shot a friend while hunting quail on a canned hunting preserve.16 According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, thousands of injuries are attributed to hunting in the U.S. every year—and that number only includes incidents involving humans.17″https://www.peta.org/issues/wildlife/wildlife-factsheets/sport-hunting-cruel-unnecessary/

Actions you can take to end grouse shooting.

There is limited organised action and as far as I am aware no current petitions. The last petition resulted in a debate in parliament but despite 123,077signatures failed to bring about a ban on grouse shooting

Here is what I have been able to find, please take action if you possibly can.

Join protest ramble August 12th

If you live near or are able to get to Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire there is a protest ramble on August 12th.

In the Yorkshire and Durham dales which my family visit frequently for walking and just enjoying the countryside there are no such warnings. You can suddenly came across a shooting party in proximity to a popular foot path. While it offers an opportunity to express your opposition this is distressing for many people and could be a safety hazard. On one occasion police ignored our reports of shooters worrying sheep chasing after them in an attempt to remove them from the area saying that there was nothing they could do.

Join a protest to Make badger culling, fox hunting and driven grouse shooting history

It may well be a challenge to say the least particularly if your MP is conservative as the Tories tend to support blood sports, this is probably because a good majority participate in them and they therefore continue to put their own pleasures first, however dubious or unethical, before those of the vast majority who wish to see an end to such barbarities as shooting and hunting. Nonetheless please be persistent keep in mind fox hunting was eventually banned as a result of public pressure.

Related links

Chris Packham calls to end Ilkley Moor grouse shooting

“Wildlife presenter Chris Packham is campaigning for an end to grouse shooting on Ilkley Moor, calling it “moorland vandalism”. He made his comments in a statement to moor owners Bradford Council ahead of the grouse shooting season next week. The council said it permits shooting for just eight days each year, under a contract to be reviewed in 2018. Ilkley Moor is the last publicly owned place in the UK to allow grouse shooting during the season.”

“According to industry statistics an estimated 700,000 grouse are shot every year in Britain for ‘sport’ all over the UK. In driven shooting, red grouse are frightened from their heather homes by a line of beaters shouting and stomping to drive them towards eagerly awaiting men with guns. The grouse don’t stand a chance, as it is basically a massacre. Many will not be killed outright, but will be shot and wounded before hurtling to the ground where they will lie maimed, suffering and terrified.”

Grouse shooting is a bloodsport People pay vast sums of money (1000-2000 a day) to blast a sentient creature out of the sky for enjoyment. A creature that has been driven towards them to make it easier. Whether or not money changes hands is not the issue though – shooting or hunting animals for amusement is something the Hunt Saboteurs Association is unequivocally opposed to. Grouse are known as the king of gamebirds because of their fast flight. This speed makes a clean kill difficult and results in birds being shot without instantly falling to the ground, and many fly on wounded.

CAMPAIGNERS have renewed calls for a ban on grouse shooting on Ilkley Moor as figures emerge which reveal a decline in over half of protected breeding bird species

Ban Blood Sport on Ilkley Moor (BBIM) has written to the leader of Bradford Council Susan Hinchcliffe noting that populations of breeding birds have fallen as a result of grouse shooting and related moorland management, and called on the local authority to end the blood sport on public land.

This video shows the shocking use of cruel traps. Note the petition referred to is closed.

Published on Sep 9, 2016

“Well done Terry Pickford for speaking the truth, exposing what gamekeepers would obviously prefer no-one to know. It is a terribly sad situation, but I for one must applaud your efforts over the last 4 decades, working to support and protect Hen Harriers and Peregrine Falcons in the Forest of Bowland, under such difficult circumstances. ” The petition referred to failed.

Soon it will be the so-called Glorious 12th here in the UK, this being August 12th which begins the shooting season, when men , usually men but increasingly women, go out onto the moorland armed to the teeth and use tiny birds as live targets, shooting them out of the sky after terrifying them into leaving the safe cover of their habitats by what is called grouse beating – a method to drive them towards the shooters using flags, sticks, and other devices. During 1st October to 1 February, this barbaric behaviour is further added to by the commencement of the pheasant shooting season.Add to this deer hunting/stalking in some way or another depending on the breed or gender of deer occurs throughout most of the year. Rabbits of course can be killed with little or no restrictions all year round. What a shocking state of affairs exists when people can legally kill members of another species simply for fun, wantonly and callously take the lives of other sentient beings who have as much right as we to live out their natural life spans.

Hunting, shooting, deer stalking are all the same thing namely the killing or massacre of other living beings, the different classifications are irrelevant to the unfortunate animals who suffer pain and death as a result of this inhumane pastime.

What makes people wish to go out into wild places and with deliberate intention shoot helpless defenceless animals? More to the point can such people change?

Below you can read what Lady Florence Dixie back in the 19th century said about hunting and other blood sports:

“What is it but deliberate massacre when thousands and tens of thousand of tame, hand-reared creatures are literally drawn into the Jaws of death and mown down in a particular brutal manner? A perfect roar of guns fills the air, louder tap and yell the beaters, above the din can be heard the heart-rendering cries of wounded hares and rabbits, some of which can be seen dragging themselves away, with both hind legs broken, or turning round and round in their agony before they die. And the pheasants ! They are on every side, some rising, some dropping, some lying dead, but the greater majority fluttering on the ground wounded, some with both legs broken and a wing, some with both wings broken and a leg, others merely winged, running to hide, others mortally wounded gasping out their last breath of life amidst the fiendish sounds which surround them. And this is called sport!… Sport in every form and kind is horrible, from the rich man’s hare-coursing to the poor man’s rabbit-coursing.Lady Florence Dixie The Horrors of Sport

From reading the above you may be surprised to learn that Florence Dixie, a Scottish traveller, war correspondent, writer and feminist, once participated in blood sports with great enthusiasm including big game hunting. However during the 1890s her views on what is often termed field sports changed quite dramatically, in her book The Horrors of Sport she condemned blood sports as cruel.

We owe much to animals, and their rights are still shamefully neglected, while wild animals are absolutely unprotected. Many women are heedlessly, and others ignorantly cruel in this particular. … Experience has taught me the cruelty and horror of much miscalled sport. Wide travel, much contact with the animal world , and a good deal of experience in a variety of sports have all combined to make me ashamed and deeply regretful for every life my hand has taken.From an interview with Charles W. Forward,1894

During her early life and travels Dixie enjoyed hunting, raging from fox hunting to hunting wild life in Patagonia as the following extracts describe.

Dixie was an enthusiastic fox hunting participant:

‘The merry blast of the huntsman’s horn resounds, the view-halloa rings out cheerily on the bright crisp air of a fine hunting morning; the fox is “gone away,” you have got a good start, and your friend has too. “Come on,” he shouts, “let us see this run together!” Side by side you fly the first fence, take your horse in hand, and settle down to ride over the broad grass country. How distinctly you remember that run, how easily you recall each fence you flew together, each timber-rail you topped, and that untempting bottom you both got so luckily and safely over, and above all, the old farm-yard, where the gallant fox yielded up his life.’

Across Patagonia Florence Dixie

During 1878-1879 Dixie travelled with her husband, two of her brothers and a friend in Patagonia in South America. There, she hunted big game. Below is an extract from Across Patagonia in which she describes with gusto the chase and killing of an ostrich.

Fortunately, beyond a shaking, I am unhurt, and remounting, endeavour to rejoin the now somewhat distant chase. The ostrich, Gregorio, and the dog have reached the plain, and as I gallop quickly down the hill I can see that the bird has begun doubling. This is a sure sign of fatigue, and shows that the ostrich’s strength is beginning to fail him. Nevertheless it is a matter of no small difficulty for one dog to secure his prey, even at this juncture, as he cannot turn and twist about as rapidly as the ostrich. At each double the bird shoots far ahead of his pursuer, and gains a considerable advantage. Away across the plain the two animals fly, whilst I and Gregorio press eagerly in their wake. The excitement grows every moment more intense, and I watch the close struggle going on with the keenest interest. Suddenly the stride of the bird grows slower, his doubles become more frequent, showers of feathers fly in every direction as Plata seizes him by the tail, which comes away in his mouth. In another moment the dog has him by the throat, and for a few minutes nothing can be distinguished but a gray struggling heap. Then Gregorio dashes forward and throws himself off his horse, breaks the bird’s neck, and when I arrive upon the scene the struggle is over. The run had lasted for twenty-five minutes.

So what changed:

Florence Dixie eventually became “haunted by a sad remorse” for the death of a beautiful golden deer of the Cordilleras, who was unusually tame and trusting. After this time Dixie’s views on field sports changed dramatically, and in her book The Horrors of Sport she condemned blood sports as cruel. She eventually became a vegetarian and an advocate for animals, she wrote “A Prayer for Dogs” to help people realise the necessity of the proper treatment of domestic animals and the “The Union of Mercy”to help teach children not to torment birds and adults not to wear fur.

In more recent times the next convert from hunting describes his reasons for doing so:

Changing Attitudes: Why I Quit HuntingA Shooting Ourselves in the Foot: The Sanitizing of Violence in Our Society Article from All-Creatures.org

In November 1989, I was shot by a deer hunter, while on my own property. The irresponsible hunter left me for dead, and my twelve year old son loaded me in a truck and drove me 40 miles to a hospital. That didn’t dampen my enthusiasm, though, and is not the reason I quit, but it did give me a solid taste of what the animals endure.

I guess I just started to understand that the animal I was looking at through a scope was not just a target, but a living thing. A thing that suffered when shot, a thing that I had no right to kill, though I had the privilege to do so, by virtue of paying another person a fee for a license. Think about that. The animal is minding his own business when you go into a store, pay a fee and walk out with a license to kill the animal, what a deal.

I shot the last animal that will ever fall to my gun in November 1992. I hunted until January, 1997.

In five years, I discovered I could love the outdoors, and it’s experiences, which I still dearly enjoy, without killing. The guns stay at home when I take to the field now, though I keep the rust off them by frequent trips to the range to break clay targets or make little groups of holes in paper, and I have turned more to shooting competition for satisfaction and achievement.

Hunting/shooting – or plain and simply murder of the other living beings with whom we share our world – is a pursuit of the past, at least it should be for it has no place in the modern world. As Isaac Bashevis Singer once wrote: “There will be no justice as long as man will stand with a knife or with a gun and destroy those who are weaker than he is.”

Whether it is foxes, deer, grouse, pheasants or rabbits and hares it is time to end the killing. No country can claim to be ethically progressive while it allows and even encourages it citizens to kill animals simply to satisfy some abhorrent pleasure.

Ban all hunting.

Hunters and others involved educate yourself about hunting. Consider a more humane pastime.

9 Things No One Told You About Hunting

Hunters make up many excuses to justify their pastime. However, cruel, unnecessary killing—which is what hunting is—has no justification.

Again another delayed article, but a reminder of the atrocity of grouse shooting season is something which can be discussed and fought against any time. Firstly apologies for the awful formatting. Not my fault, I have tried for some considerable time to sort it out and it seems that this all too common wordpress glitch will not resolve.

When I was twelve, I went hunting with my father and we shot a bird. He was laying there and something struck me. Why do we call this fun to kill this creature [who] was as happy as I was when I woke up this morning.Marv Levy

At the beginning of August my husband and I were in the Yorkshire Dales which is very beautiful at this time of year as the hills are covered with purple heather. All very tranquil except for the sound of gunfire.

The problem is that about the same time of year the four-month long shooting season begins where a small minority of very wealthy people go out onto the moors to shoot grouse. Grouse are tiny birds like the one below who has been shot down from the sky for no other reason than sadistic pleasure. These birds are bread on the moors for this purpose – more about this later. During August to December they are shot in their thousands, in 2012, 700,000 red grouse were killed during the season, as day after day shooters use them as live targets.

The Yorkshire Dales of course is not the only locality that provides this obscene form of pleasure to the elite minority, other locations include the Durham Dales, the Yorkshire Moors, Exmoor, in fact any area that has heather moorland. Throughout the UK since the mid 1800s many areas of heather have been carefully managed to provide grouse for shooting.

Indeed there is a dark side to the breathtaking splendor of the heather covered hillsides that so many of us admire and that is, the… heather-rich environment is created because the grouse thrive on young heather shoots. To create fresh young shoots, the heather is burned, which can harm wildlife and damage the environment.

My family and I have enjoyed this breathtaking scenery for many years without knowing the disturbing reasons for its existence.

A return trip to the dales in late September and the situation was even worse with three shooting parties in close proximity.

The three shooting parties where in short distance from one another and many many birds who were once enjoying the beautiful windy day were shot from the sky for the pleasure of these over privileged psychopaths. I did tell one group what I thought of them along the lines of “you murdering bastards, cowards shooting tiny defenceless birds”. Yes I know I often say that verbal abuse does little good but…well… I get angry, so angry. It is depressing, and frustrating knowing that there is nothing I could do to stop this as this country (UK) allows the annual barbaric slaughter of these innocent helpless birds. It’s all about money and abhorrent pleasure, shooting parties are charged as much as £10,000 per trip just to shoot these tiny birds. Like many of the awful things that happen in the world it is I fear the acquisition of wealth for the minority that perpetuates this atrocity. Vast acres of this beautiful landscape are managed in order to accommodate this barbaric pleasure. Notices displayed all over the hills at the commencement of footpaths tell people not to disturb ground nesting birds or in the case of the notice below not to allow dogs except on public footpaths. No not for the welfare of the birds but so that there are more birds for these wicked people to kill every year.

The Yorkshire dales is a popular place for hikers, people like to walk in the hills, myself included, and it is awful to suddenly come across these shooting parties. This aspect of grouse shooting is rarely considered.

The locals accept this blatant cruelty as a way of life, just the way things are and even make light of it. In a local tea room a notice says something a long the lines of: ” It is grouse season, be careful to duck! Relax with a nice soothing cup of tea.

This day in September was a glorious day with sun wind and even a little rain with rainbows but all this was spoiled by the sound of gunfire.

The Yorkshire Dales is a peaceful place and very scenic until you become aware of the awful things that take place there to animals. The shooting season lasts from August 12th until mid December, so for four months of the year these helpless birds are shot down from the skies, walkers and other visitors to the dales are more than likely to meet up with a shooting party and even if you just drive through, stop for a picnic or admire the view you are likely to be confronted by the sound of gun fire and see men – well it is still mostly men- approaching carrying dead grouse.

I loath this time of year in the dales, when you can hear gun shots you know that birds are being killed for no reason other than the perverted pleasure of the over privileged.

Why, why do we allow this barbaric practice to continue. It is a fact the majority of the population oppose grouse shooting, yet it remains.

There has been a recent petition concerning grouse shooting which gained 125,76 signatures, the number required to force a debate in parliament:

Ban driven grouse shooting

Grouse shooting for ‘sport’ depends on intensive habitat management which increases flood risk and greenhouse gas emissions, relies on killing Foxes, Stoats, Mountain Hares etc in large numbers and often leads to the deliberate illegal killing of protected birds of prey including Hen Harriers.

Driven grouse shooting uses animals for live target practice, with thousands killed every day. Native predators are killed because they eat Red Grouse. Mountain Hares are killed because they carry ticks that can spread diseases to grouse. Heather is burned to increase Red Grouse numbers for shooting. Grouse shooting is economically, ecologically and socially unnecessary. This is ‘canned hunting’.

The above petition by Scientist Dr Mark Avery supported by the League against Cruel Sport and wildlife TV presenter Chris Packham aimed to bring an end to this barbarity.

Prior to the debate a committee met on October 18th to consider evidence, the Committee wanted the House of Commons to have the chance to hear evidence on this issue. This is supposed to inform MPs taking part in the House of Commons debate.

Signatories of petitions were invited to share their expertise on the subject.
In particular, the Committee welcomed contributions on the following points:-

“Should the law on grouse shooting be changed? If so, how?
– What effect does grouse shooting have on wildlife and the environment?
– What role does grouse shooting play in rural life, especially the rural
economy?”

I am sure that it will come as no surprise that the government rejected the petition’s call for a grouse shooting ban. Sadly we remain an uncivilised country that allows its citizens to wantonly take the lives of members of another species for pleasure and profit and simply because they can. The progress it seems towards a more ethical society has taken another step backwards, a sad day for all who worked tirelessly, all who signed the petition and a sad day also for the grouse who are shot out of the sky as living targets in a barbaric so-called sport that should now be consigned to history.

Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow-creatures is amusing in itself.
James Anthony

The issue of morality

In addition to the sound arguments against grouse shooting – such as the intensive habitat management required, which is responsible for damaging protected wildlife sites, increased water pollution, flood risk and greenhouse gas emissions – there is an even more important consideration: morality. Yet there is no mention included in the points of evidence to be considered of the ethics of killing thousands of living beings simply to fulfill some perverted pass-time of the well shod.

It is surely deeply immoral to use live animals as targets, yet morality is rarely considered in any debate concerning grouse shooting or pheasant shooting which commenced in October.

Yes I of course realise that nothing would change on the basis of morality as a stand alone argument, the rights and wrongs of killing another living being for the purpose of pleasure would sadly not alone hold any weight in such a debate, yet this issue is surely one of the most important.

For many upland communities, grouse shooting plays a pivotal role in the local economy, providing a valuable source of jobs and income for local businesses. It also underpins the social life of these communities and helps to tackle rural isolation.

The same could surely be said of just about any of the grave social injustices both past and present and the ongoing exploitation of most of the species on the planet including our own that the continuation of these abuses are important to local economies, employment and social life. I am particularly amused by the rural isolation argument which is just so ludicrous as there are few places here in the UK which are really that isolated and even if they were the influx of a relatively small number of people for three months each year would have little impact and in my opinion does not justify the slaughter of thousands of birds.

Here is more information.

Below is an account of a driven grouse shooting moor in the UK

The chilly air chaps your cheeks as your boots rustle through the heather – and when you reach the top of the hill, you can see for miles.

Stretched out all around you is moorland. Open, treeless, with not a house or farm in sight.

It looks and feels wild, so you should expect to be able to see plenty of wildlife . But there is nothing, it’s silent and still, it’s eerie.

Then you pass a log lying over a little stream. On it, inside a metal cage, is a trap and in its jaws are the smashed and tangled remains of a stoat, its eyes squeezed from their sockets, its mouth locked open in a grimace of terminal pain.

Before that, you had stood holding your nose at the side of a gamekeeper’s “stink pit”, gazing in disbelief at the rotting bodies of foxes , crows, magpies, all mouldering in a vile mess of feathers, fur and flesh and bone.

And then through your binoculars, you spot something. It’s a bird, flapping furiously, battering itself against a post. It is hanging with its feet clamped in a trap.

When you get closer, you can see its bent and bloody legs, its long black-tipped grey wings and its frayed tail. It is a male hen harrier and it has been caught in a pole trap. It will die a long, painful death.

All this so the birds of prey and natural predators won’t harm grouse – birds that have been bred and reared to be shot for pleasure.

“Intensive grouse shooting depends on wildlife crime – protected raptors have to be killed in order for the big ‘bags’ of Red Grouse to be possible. Even if a particular grouse moor does not kill protected raptors, they will benefit if other grouse moors, near and far, do so. Intensive grouse shooting is underpinned by wildlife crime.“

Another immorality is that this cruel practice is subsidised by the tax payers, most of whom do not support this barbaric so-called sport. Grouse shooting is supported to the tune of 17 million pounds which is paid to landowners and farmers, people who are already wealthy and who will accrue even more wealth as a result of the business of grouse shooting.

In addition to grouse shooting being heavily subsidised by the tax payer, it involves wildlife crime as already mentioned as the grouse’s natural predators including protected species such as peregrine falcons, golden eagles, red kites and hen harriers are killed to maintain the vast numbers of grouse required for shooting. In England, the hen harrier remains critically endangered and on the verge of extinction as a result of persecution on grouse moors Also the following animals are killed in large numbers: mountain hares, weasels, stoats, magpies, crows, foxes, badgers, rats, even squirrels and many more. As discussed earlier the land is intensively managed by burning and draining to create a monoculture of the heather the birds eat. This releases the carbon in the soil, pollutes rivers and helps to flood the towns downstream.

While 17 million is spent on subsidises for the rich to indulge their cruel sport councils throughout the country face as much as a 40 per cent cut back in government funding . As a consequence vital services such as lollipop men and women are cut with the result of a loss of their jobs and children are consequently put at risk as a result.

Newcastle is of course not the only council affected by government cuts which forces them to make cut backs to vital public services. While millions of the tax payer money is spent subsidising the “sport of kings “(grouse shooting) our services are cut. Grouse shooting is referred to as the “sport of kings” as it is only the wealthy elite who can afford to participate. Yet this is subsidised at the expense of poor people.

Most of the land in the Yorkshire Dales is managed to encourage the numbers of grouse to increase, this is many many acres of land. The following blog provides a good assessment as to what goes on behind the scenic facade that people enjoy all the year round, including hunting, shooting and sheep farming,

The UK can never claim to be a civilised country while it allows people to use live animals as target practice. I had hoped that this debate would bring us closer to a more modern nation which respects the lives of the other beings who inhabit our beautiful countryside.

Animals give me more pleasure through the viewfinder of a camera than they ever did in the crosshairs of a gunsight. And after I’ve finished “shooting,” my unharmed victims are still around for others to enjoy. I have developed a deep respect for animals. I consider them fellow living creatures with certain rights that should not be violated any more than those of humans.

Jimmy Stewart

Related Link

Grouse shooting estates shored up by millions in subsidies

Common agricultural policy money given to estates in England, including one owned by the Duke of Westminster, the richest landowner in Britain with land holdings estimated to be worth £9bn